Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott Volume IV Part 4

Footnotes of the Chapter XXV.

[1: The epitaph of this favorite greyhound may be seen on the edge of the bank, a little way below the house of Abbotsford.]

[2: The Reverend Alexander Dyce says, "N. T. stands for _Nathaniel Thompson_, the Tory bookseller, who published these _Loyal Poems_."--(1839.)]

[3: An edition of the British Dramatists had, I believe, been projected by Mr. Terry.]

[4: Mr. Thomson died 8th January, 1838, before the publication of the first edition of these Memoirs had been completed.--(1839.)]

[5: _Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott_, p. 56.]

[6: [From a pa.s.sage in a letter to Lady Abercorn, written September 10, 1818, on the return from a similar journey (see _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 24), it seems probable that some at least of the incidents of this visit belong to that of the later date.]]

[7: This alluded to a ridiculous hunter of lions, who, being met by Mr. Morritt in the grounds at Rokeby, disclaimed all taste for picturesque beauties, but overwhelmed their owner with Homeric Greek; of which he had told Scott.]

[8: _Burnfoot_ is the name of a farmhouse on the Buccleuch estate, not far from Langholm, where the late Sir John Malcolm and his distinguished brothers were born. Their grandfather had, I believe, found refuge there after forfeiting a good estate and an ancient baronetcy in the _affair_ of 1715. A monument to the gallant General's memory has recently been erected near the spot of his birth.]

[9: _3d King Henry VI._ Act I. Scene 4.]

[10: See _Life of Dryden_, Scott's _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. i. p. 293.]

[11: _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act IV. Scene 2.]

[12: Several of these letters having been enclosed in franked covers, which have perished, I am unable to affix the exact dates to them.]

[13: The Rev. Alexander Dyce informs me that _nine_ of Carey's pieces were printed in 1771, for J. Murray of Fleet Street, in a quarto of thirty-five pages, ent.i.tled _Poems from a MS. written in the time of Oliver Cromwell_. This rare tract had never fallen into Scott's hands.--(1839.)]

[14: Byron's _Life and Works_, vol. ii. p. 169.]

[15: Several letters to Ballantyne on the same subject are quoted in the notes to the last edition of _Rokeby_. See Scott's _Poetical Works_, 1834, vol. ix. pp. 1-3; and especially the note on p. 300, from which it appears that the closing stanza was added, in deference to Ballantyne and Erskine, though the author retained his own opinion that "it spoiled one effect without producing another."]

[16: [See _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 16.]]

[17:

"My noontide, India may declare; Like her fierce sun, I fired the air!

Like him, to wood and cave bid fly Her natives, from mine angry eye.

And now, my race of terror ran, Mine be the eye of tropic sun!

No pale gradations quench his ray, No twilight dews his wrath allay; With disk like battle-target red, He rushes to his burning bed.

Dyes the wide wave with b.l.o.o.d.y light, Then sinks at once--and all is night."--_Canto_ vi. 21.]

[18: "Scott found peculiar favor and imitation among the fair s.e.x. There was Miss Holford, and Miss Mitford, and Miss Francis; but, with the greatest respect be it spoken, none of his imitators did much honor to the original except Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, until the appearance of _The Bridal of Triermain_ and _Harold the Dauntless_, which, in the opinion of some, equalled if not surpa.s.sed him; and, lo! after three or four years, they turned out to be the master's own compositions."--Byron, vol. xv. p. 96.]

[19: See, for instance, the Epistle of Lady Corke--or that of Messrs. Lackington, booksellers, to one of their dandy authors,--

"Should you feel any touch of _poetical_ glow, We've a scheme to suggest--Mr. Scott, you must know (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for the _Row_), Having quitted the Borders to seek new renown, Is coming by long Quarto stages to town, And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay), Means to do all the gentlemen's seats on the way.

Now the scheme is, though none of our hackneys can beat him, To start a new Poet through Highgate to meet him; Who by means of quick proofs--no revises--long coaches-- May do a few Villas before Scott approaches; Indeed if our Pegasus be not curst shabby, He'll reach, without foundering, at least Woburn-Abbey," etc., etc.]

[20: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 246.]

[21: It is included in the _Border Minstrelsy_, vol. i. p.

270.]

[22: This murder, perpetrated in November, 1806, remains a mystery in 1836. The porter's name was Begbie. [See _Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 63.]]

CHAPTER XXVI

AFFAIRS OF JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. -- CAUSES OF THEIR DERANGEMENT. --LETTERS OF SCOTT TO HIS PARTNERS. -- NEGOTIATION FOR RELIEF WITH MESSRS. CONSTABLE. -- NEW PURCHASE OF LAND AT ABBOTSFORD. --EMBARRa.s.sMENTS CONTINUED. -- JOHN BALLANTYNE'S EXPRESSES. --DRUMLANRIG, PENRITH, ETC. -- SCOTT'S MEETING WITH THE MARQUIS OF ABERCORN AT LONGTOWN. -- HIS APPLICATION TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. --OFFER OF THE POET-LAUREATESHIP, -- CONSIDERED, -- AND DECLINED. --ADDRESS OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH TO THE PRINCE REGENT. -- ITS RECEPTION. -- CIVIC HONORS CONFERRED ON SCOTT. -- QUESTION OF TAXATION ON LITERARY INCOME. -- LETTERS TO MR. MORRITT, MR. SOUTHEY, MR. RICHARDSON, MR. CRABBE, MISS BAILLIE, AND LORD BYRON

1813

About a month after the publication of The Bridal of Triermain, the affairs of the Messrs. Ballantyne, which had never apparently been in good order since the establishment of the bookselling firm, became so embarra.s.sed as to call for Scott's most anxious efforts to disentangle them. Indeed, it is clear that there had existed some very serious perplexity in the course of the preceding autumn; for Scott writes to John Ballantyne, while Rokeby was in progress (August 11, 1812),--"I have a letter from James, very anxious about your health and state of spirits. If you suffer the present inconveniences to depress you too much, you are wrong; and if you conceal any part of them, are very unjust to us all. I am always ready to make any sacrifices to do justice to engagements, and would rather sell anything, or everything, than be less than true men to the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE

_From the painting by Raeburn_]

I have already, perhaps, said enough to account for the general want of success in this publishing adventure; but Mr. James Ballantyne sums up the case so briefly in his deathbed paper, that I may here quote his words. "My brother," he says, "though an active and pushing, was not a cautious bookseller, and the large sums received never formed an addition to stock. In fact, they were all expended by the partners, who, being then young and sanguine men, not unwillingly adopted my brother's hasty results. By May, 1813, in a word, the absolute throwing away of our own most valuable publications, and the rash adoption of some injudicious speculations of Mr. Scott, had introduced such losses and embarra.s.sments, that after a very careful consideration, Mr. Scott determined to dissolve the concern." He adds: "This became a matter of less difficulty, because time had in a great measure worn away the differences between Mr. Scott and Mr. Constable, and Mr. Hunter was now out of Constable's concern.[23] A peace, therefore, was speedily made up, and the old habits of intercourse were restored."

How reluctantly Scott had made up his mind to open such a negotiation with Constable, as involved a complete exposure of the mismanagement of John Ballantyne's business as a publisher, will appear from a letter dated about the Christmas of 1812, in which he says to James, who had proposed asking Constable to take a share both in Rokeby and in the Annual Register, "You must be aware, that in stating the objections which occur to me to taking in Constable, I think they ought to give way either to absolute necessity or to very strong grounds of advantage. But I _am_ persuaded nothing ultimately good can be expected from any connection with that house, unless for those who have a mind to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. We will talk the matter coolly over, and, in the mean while, perhaps you could see W. Erskine, and learn what impression this odd union is like to make among your friends.

Erskine is sound-headed, and quite to be trusted with _your whole story_. I must own I can hardly think the purchase of the Register is equal to the loss of credit and character which your surrender will be conceived to infer." At the time when he wrote this, Scott no doubt antic.i.p.ated that Rokeby would have success not less decisive than The Lady of the Lake; but in this expectation--though 10,000 copies in three months would have seemed to any other author a triumphant sale--he had been disappointed. And meanwhile the difficulties of the firm, acc.u.mulating from week to week, had reached, by the middle of May, a point which rendered it absolutely necessary for him to conquer all his scruples.

Mr. Cadell, then Constable's partner, says in his _Memoranda_,--"Prior to this time the reputation of John Ballantyne and Co. had been decidedly on the decline. It was notorious in the trade that their general speculations had been unsuccessful; they were known to be grievously in want of money. These rumors were realized to the full by an application which Messrs. B. made to Mr.

Constable in May, 1813, for pecuniary aid, accompanied by an offer of some of the books they had published since 1809, as a purchase, along with various shares in Mr. Scott's own poems. Their difficulties were admitted, and the negotiation was pressed urgently; so much so, that a pledge was given, that if the terms asked were acceded to, John Ballantyne and Co. would endeavor to wind up their concerns, and cease as soon as possible to be publishers." Mr. Cadell adds: "I need hardly remind you that this was a period of very great general difficulty in the money market.

It was the crisis of the war. The public expenditure had reached an enormous height; and even the most prosperous mercantile houses were often pinched to sustain their credit. It may easily, therefore, be supposed that the Messrs. Ballantyne had during many months besieged every banker's door in Edinburgh, and that their agents had done the like in London."

The most important of the requests which the laboring house made to Constable was that he should forthwith take entirely to himself the stock, copyright, and future management of the Edinburgh Annual Register. Upon examining the state of this book, however, Constable found that the loss on it had never been less than 1000 per annum, and he therefore declined that matter for the present. He promised, however, to consider seriously the means he might have of ultimately relieving them from the pressure of the Register, and, in the mean time, offered to take 300 sets of the stock on hand. The other purchases he finally made on the 18th of May were considerable portions of Weber's unhappy Beaumont and Fletcher--of an edition of De Foe's novels in twelve volumes--of a collection ent.i.tled Tales of the East in three large volumes, 8vo, double-columned--and of another in one volume, called Popular Tales--about 800 copies of The Vision of Don Roderick--and a fourth of the remaining copyright of Rokeby, price 700. The immediate accommodation thus received amounted to 2000; and Scott, who had personally conducted the latter part of the negotiation, writes thus to his junior partner, who had gone a week or two earlier to London in quest of some similar a.s.sistance there:--

TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, CARE OF MESSRS. LONGMAN & CO., LONDON.

PRINTING-OFFICE, May 18, 1813.

DEAR JOHN,--After many _offs_ and _ons_, and as many _projets_ and _contre-projets_ as the treaty of Amiens, I have at length concluded a treaty with Constable, in which I am sensible he has gained a great advantage;[24] but what could I do amidst the disorder and pressure of so many demands? The arrival of your long-dated bills decided my giving in, for what could James or I do with them? I trust this sacrifice has cleared our way, but many rubs remain; nor am I, after these hard skirmishes, so able to meet them by my proper credit.

Constable, however, will be a zealous ally; and for the first time these many weeks I shall lay my head on a quiet pillow, for now I do think that, by our joint exertions, we shall get well through the storm, save Beaumont from depreciation, get a partner in our heavy concerns, reef our topsails, and move on securely under an easy sail.

And if, on the one hand, I have sold my gold too cheap, I have, on the other, turned my lead to gold. Brewster[25] and Singers[26] are the only heavy things to which I have not given a blue eye. Had your news of Cadell's sale[27] reached us here, I could not have harpooned my grampus so deeply as I have done, as nothing but Rokeby would have barbed the hook.

Adieu, my dear John. I have the most sincere regard for you, and you may depend on my considering your interest with quite as much attention as my own. If I have ever expressed myself with irritation in speaking of this business, you must impute it to the sudden, extensive, and unexpected embarra.s.sments in which I found myself involved all at once. If to your real goodness of heart and integrity, and to the quickness and acuteness of your talents, you added habits of more universal circ.u.mspection, and, above all, the courage to tell disagreeable truths to those whom you hold in regard, I p.r.o.nounce that the world never held such a man of business. These it must be your study to add to your other good qualities. Meantime, as some one says to Swift, I love you with all your failings. Pray make an effort and love me with all mine. Yours truly,

W. S.

Three days afterwards Scott resumes the subject as follows:--